It was with a certain amount of trepidation that I approached The Sixth Sense. Prior to the film's release, I wasn't all that enthralled with the trailers or the quote-whore-heavy hype. But I kept hearing how when it was all said and done, the movie would knock you on your ass. Funny...I'm still standing.

Haley Joel Osment is Cole. He's a quiet kid, and he's picked on by everybody. He doesn't want to make trouble for his mom, Lynn (Toni Collette). Oh, and he sees things. Dead people, to be precise. This'll become important later, so pay attention.

Bruce Willis is Malcolm, a psychologist. A year before he starts seeing Cole, Malcolm is shot by a former patient, who then shoots himself. Malcolm wants to know what's going on in Cole's head. What does he see? Dead people? Wha? Malcolm thinks he may be able to make things right in his own mind and life by helping (and possibly healing) Cole.

The Sixth Sense was praised by audiences and critics alike for strong performances from both Osment and Willis, as well as plot twist that you'll never see coming. Unless, of course, you pay even the tiniest bit of attention to the film itself, or if you've got a short attention span, just the trailer. Take away that twist. What does that leave?

An average movie with above average performances. Nothing more.

If you've seen the film, think about that. If you haven't, well, I'll wait.

No spoilers here, by the way. A twist is a twist is a twist.

Yet that twist is the hook for most people; it's the trick. I had the trick figured out in the first half hour. Not a boast, just a statement of fact. It's like seeing the puppeteer pulling the strings or the magician sliding the card up the sleeve. But as with all good tricks, the answer is often right there in front of you. It's keeping you there, enthralled, that is the true magic. The solution, the buildup to The Sixth Sense is right there, it's just a question of whether you're blindsided by it or whether you see it coming for a country mile. The movie succeeds if you're drawn in enough by the storytelling that you miss the hints, the cues that director M. Night Shyamalan gives you. The wind was out the sails for me, though, because when you take away the film's crucial twist, and you're left with what's basically an average movie; a ghost story, not necessarily a thriller, but a ghost story, and unfortunately, a ghost story that doesn't really work.

What does work - for this reviewer, anyway - are the performances. Bruce Willis, long the subject of scorn at the HBS/Filmink duoploy of film bitchiness, has found a role that's absolutely perfect for him. He acts, by God. His Malcolm is very poignant, vey quiet, but there's a definite sense of "I'm not quite sure what the hell's going on here, but...", sort of feel to it. It's very reserved. He's not saving the world from Michael Bay's crappy editing, and he's not mugging for the camera and singing Swingin' On A Star. He's underplaying it, and with good reason.

Osment is the film's other saving grace. Like Jeremy Blackman in Magnolia, Osment makes you forget that he's a child actor. Cole is so adult and so childlike at the same time. He's cute, but he's not the stereotypical Disney moppet/wiseass. Show me another child actor who can deliver that many lines, react to the other adult actors around him in a very believeable way, and still have that same solemn look 75% of the time he's on screen. Osment's the real deal, and all just a few years removed from being Forrest Gump Junior. Good as Willis is here, Osment just walks all over him. You'd assume Bruce is used to it by now.

But is the movie good? Well, the movie's not bad. But the movie's successful (and therefore - in the eyes of Joe Moviegoer - good) if you're caught; if you didn't see it coming. Otherwise it's just a throwback to ghost stories of old, where ordinary people sometimes see extraordinary things. I was content to see Willis step up to the plate as an actor (as he's known to do on the all too rare occasion), and I was mesmerized by Osment's performance as well. But as was the case with The Blair Witch Project, I don't feel as if I saw anything special.

Willis fans will eat it up with a spoon, and if you're drawn in by the tale, it can be an interesting yarn. It didn't click for me as a whole, but it apparently did for everyone else.